Wilner: It's time for Stanford to step it up

Stanford's Toby Gerhart (7) tries to break the tackle of Arizona's Xavier Kelley (15) in the third quarter of an NCAA college football game at Arizona Stadium in Tucson, Ariz., Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009. Arizona won 43-38.(AP Photo/Wily Low)

Cal took care of business, thrashing UCLA in a game the Bears had to win. Now it's Stanford's turn to perform under pressure.

Saturday's tangle with Arizona State is arguably the most important game in coach Jim Harbaugh's two-and-a-half years on The Farm. A loss would push the Cardinal's once-promising season to the brink and put its quest for a bowl bid in serious jeopardy.

Known for its physical style, Stanford now faces a test of its psychological mettle: Can the Cardinal regroup from a crushing loss at Arizona in which it blew a nine-point fourth-quarter lead? How deep is its resolve? How strong is its leadership?

"I don't have a way to lift their spirits right now," Harbaugh said minutes after the 43-38 defeat. "It's a very tough loss, and we have to live it together. But we'll find a way to bounce back."

They had better do it soon. The Cardinal is sitting at four victories, just as it was before allowing 1,016 yards and 81 points in back-to-back road losses to Oregon State and Arizona. It must win two more games to become bowl eligible for the first time since 2001, and the opportunities are evaporating.

With a victory over Arizona State, the Cardinal (4-3) would need to win one out of four in November against Oregon, USC, Cal and Notre Dame, whose combined record is 18-6. That's far from easy, but it's manageable: Only USC is on the road.

Advertisement

But a loss to Arizona State would make the math much tougher. The Cardinal would have to win two of the last four, thereby placing greater pressure on its tattered defense to contain four extremely potent offenses.

That's a scenario Stanford, which is 6-22 in November and December during its eight-year postseason drought, must avoid at all cost. It's also a scenario — a three-game losing streak entering the stretch run — that seemed unlikely a few weeks ago.

In contrast to Cal, which was ranked No. 12 in the preseason polls and had designs on the Pac-10 title, the Cardinal has glided through the season with the clear-headed enthusiasm that comes from low expectations.

But this week, the dynamic shifts. The slumping Bears got their pressure release, in the form of a 45-26 victory at UCLA. Meanwhile, Stanford is a touchdown favorite at home in a must-win game — a game it should win.

Arizona State is 2-1 in league play, but it's a soft 2-1: A sloppy victory at hapless Washington State and a last-second win over the same Washington team that Stanford dominated a few weeks ago.

The Sun Devils are struggling offensively behind former Los Gatos High star Danny Sullivan, the eighth-rated quarterback in the conference. Unlike Oregon State and Arizona, they won't be able to gorge on Stanford's defensive deficiencies.

The good news for Harbaugh is that he doesn't have to fix all the problems in six days. He merely has to fix enough of them to beat Arizona State — just as Cal had to solve enough of its issues to survive UCLA.

The Bears did that and more, recapturing their early season dynamism and creating the opportunity for a strong finish.